Mexico’s second long-term supply auction for renewable power since liberalizing its energy sector in 2014 has yielded contracts with 23 companies, out of more than twice as many bidders, for 2,871 megawatts of clean capacity, at an average price of 3.347¢/kWh.

That average price has fallen by 30% in the six months since the country’s state-owned electrical utility, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), held its first auction in April. The average price bid then was 5.07¢/kWh.

“Solar dominated once more,” in the supply auction, “securing 54% of the 8.9 TWh annual power supply awarded,” PV-Tech notes, “with 43% awarded to wind farms.” Winning bidders in the latest auction, mainly from Europe, committed to invest US$4 billion in generating facilities stretching from the windy Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca to the sun-drenched Sonoran desert.